Hi all,
I am really new to the tropical fish world. But I have fallen pretty hard for the plecos and find myself in need of someone to talk to about what's going on with my new plecos.
My first pleco was a small grey fellow that our local aquarium rep sold me for my 10 gallon aquarium (which he said would not get bigger than 5 inches
...I recently set up and moved everyone into a 30 gallon, which I filled with the "Eco-complete Planted aquarium substrate" The system is about 3 weeks along and I've been testing for nitrates, nitrites, ammonia, and pH. Everything fine except pH is running about high---about 8.2--which the aquarium guy said not to worry about. (But I am a little worried about--since the books give pH guidance for all species so shouldn't I be adjusting for pH?)
I've got a ton of questions, but the first and possibly most important is about the behavior of the newest tank edition--- a gold nugget. The tank has two other plecos...the little grey guy (unsure of what species) and an albino long fin.
The albino long fin is doing this weird "dance" whenever the gold nugget gets close to it (don't know if it's a he or she)...the albino bends it's rear body--arching its tail around to the side and front and starts fibrating its fins. The gold nugget doesn't seem to be attacking the albino but they have gotten really close and touched each other several times. They also seem to be more inclined to kind of stay in each other's space. The little grey pleco, stays off by himself and hasn't been apart of this process.
Is this behavior favorable or aggressive and do i have too many plecos in this one tank? It's 17" tall, by 12" deep, by 36" long. I have a very large piece of mopani wood with lots of crevices and holes in it, and a variety of smooth river rocks (same color as grey pleco and albino) set up to provide color-compatible cavity areas for each fish.
My impression is that the gold nugget and albino are not being aggressive to each other...but it is kind of odd that they have taken to each other so quickly when the albino and the grey have never socialized...
Your opinions would be appreciated. If I need to move one, I could move one back to the small 10 gallon tank if needed.
Thanks in advance for your help.
morgangal
I am really new to the tropical fish world. But I have fallen pretty hard for the plecos and find myself in need of someone to talk to about what's going on with my new plecos.
My first pleco was a small grey fellow that our local aquarium rep sold me for my 10 gallon aquarium (which he said would not get bigger than 5 inches
...I recently set up and moved everyone into a 30 gallon, which I filled with the "Eco-complete Planted aquarium substrate" The system is about 3 weeks along and I've been testing for nitrates, nitrites, ammonia, and pH. Everything fine except pH is running about high---about 8.2--which the aquarium guy said not to worry about. (But I am a little worried about--since the books give pH guidance for all species so shouldn't I be adjusting for pH?)
I've got a ton of questions, but the first and possibly most important is about the behavior of the newest tank edition--- a gold nugget. The tank has two other plecos...the little grey guy (unsure of what species) and an albino long fin.
The albino long fin is doing this weird "dance" whenever the gold nugget gets close to it (don't know if it's a he or she)...the albino bends it's rear body--arching its tail around to the side and front and starts fibrating its fins. The gold nugget doesn't seem to be attacking the albino but they have gotten really close and touched each other several times. They also seem to be more inclined to kind of stay in each other's space. The little grey pleco, stays off by himself and hasn't been apart of this process.
Is this behavior favorable or aggressive and do i have too many plecos in this one tank? It's 17" tall, by 12" deep, by 36" long. I have a very large piece of mopani wood with lots of crevices and holes in it, and a variety of smooth river rocks (same color as grey pleco and albino) set up to provide color-compatible cavity areas for each fish.
My impression is that the gold nugget and albino are not being aggressive to each other...but it is kind of odd that they have taken to each other so quickly when the albino and the grey have never socialized...
Your opinions would be appreciated. If I need to move one, I could move one back to the small 10 gallon tank if needed.
Thanks in advance for your help.
morgangal
